


A Rune For Friendship

by Dangly_Legged_Owl



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Language Barrier, Languages and Linguistics, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-30
Updated: 2013-04-30
Packaged: 2017-12-10 00:37:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/779792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangly_Legged_Owl/pseuds/Dangly_Legged_Owl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki is about to be sworn in as an Avenger when an unexpected problem is discovered: All-Speak, the tongue of Asgard, which enables him to speak every language on earth, also leaves him incapable of comprehending the written word. It falls to his friends to teach him to read – not the easiest task in the world … Written for a prompt on Avengerkink. Teamfic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which a problem is discovered

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this last summer in response to this prompt on Avengerkink:
> 
> _ As I understand it, Thor and Loki speak All-Speak. I don't have a clue how that works but let's say it doesn't work on writing.   
> Loki's a bookworm and loves to read but when he opens an Earth book (because he's now an Avenger/stuck on Earth/something like that) he can't read a word of it because he can only read Runes. One (or more) of the Avengers has to teach him to read our Latin letters in English. This is hampered hugely by the fact that as Loki learns to read the new letters and begins to sound words out, the All-Speak translates them and so he's not actually hearing what he sees. This is frustrating for both teacher and pupil.  
> I just want something that addresses the language barrier that *has* to exist somewhere. Go at it, language nerds. _
> 
> Re-discovered the story a while ago and now I'm planning on finally finishing it one of these days. Or, erm, weeks :-)

 

“I need you to read this and sign this with your name,” Director Fury said, pointing at the bottom of the page he was holding out to Loki. “Right here.”

They were assembled in his office on board the helicarrier, four of the Avengers – Bruce was doing research somewhere in Asia and Thor would be in Asgard for a couple more days – and their closest associates. They had assembled because today, their team would receive their newest addition. At least if everything went according to plan.

Tony noted the undercurrent of excitement in the room. It was directed at the God of Mischief who stood in front of Fury’s desk in all his splendor. Loki. Loki would be an Avenger. Tony had to admit that even after everything that had happened during the past year, the mere idea of it still boggled the mind. This was the same guy who had tried to take over the world. Who had killed. Who had been _mad_.

And who, against all odds, was a very different man – uh, alien god thing now. Who now was valued by SHIELD and even by Tony himself. Who almost, _almost_ could be considered a friend.

Life _was_ crazy sometimes.

“I cannot read that,” Loki said with a slight air of indignation. “What is it?”

Tony blinked at this unexpected development. “What do you mean, you can’t read it?” he asked. “Of course you can. It’s your contract. Or, well, something like it.”

“Shh!” Darcy waved her arms wildly. “He’s supposed to see it for himself! Don’t spoil it, Tony!”

Loki gave her a withering look over his shoulder. “As I said, I am unable to read this.”

Tony scrunched up his face. “I saw you with a book just yesterday. Don’t tell me you were only looking at the pictures?”

It seemed as though Loki’s patience was already running thin. “That was one of _my_ books, Stark. I brought it back from Asgard. It doesn’t have _pictures_.”

Natasha, who was hovering by the door, tilted her head. “So what’s this talk about not being able to read your contract then?”

Loki sighed and wiped a hand across his face with all the weariness of a god who had to constantly deal with the stupidity of lesser beings. Which was probably what he really felt like. “ _My_ books are written in Asgardian script. I never learned to read your strange letters.”

Tony swallowed his surprise. It probably was a testament to how much Loki had changed these past few months to even confess to such a weakness.

Fury was by now tired of holding the piece of paper out to Loki and put it back on his desk. “So what you’re saying is that you can speak English, but not read it? Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe.”

Loki hesitated a moment, his gaze wandering around the room, apparently more than aware of half a dozen people all staring curiously at him. He finally straightened. “I do not speak English,” he said.

Now Tony couldn’t stifle a snort. “Right. So I’m wondering what this splutter I hear from you is. I think I would have noticed if it were Chinese.”

Loki was visibly trying to keep his composure. “You _do_ hear English when I’m speaking, Stark. But the language I’m actually using is All-Speak.”

It was Jane Foster who replied first, eying the God of Mischief critically. “What’s that, then? Are you actually saying that you say something in one language and we hear it in another?”

Loki rolled his green eyes and turned around to her. “At least one human in this room has some brain cells left. Yes, that is what I’m saying.”

Tony had been following the movements of his mouth very closely and was now giddy like a school boy. “But you _are_ speaking English!” he exclaimed, excitedly. “I’ve been lip-reading! I mean, I’ve been watching you speak! I can see when you’re saying m or a or b –“

“Stark is right,” Natasha remarked from her post by the door. “I think we need more information, Loki.”

Loki groaned audibly. “It _is_ tedious having to deal with you mortals. You are so _ignorant_ of everything significant in this universe,” he said.

“Hey, hey.” It was Clint piping up from somewhere in the rafters high above their heads. Only God knew how or when he’d climbed up there. “You agreed to give us any valuable information _freely_ soon as you’re part of the team. Remember?”

“I’m a _god_. My memory is impeccable.” For a second, Loki’s gaze almost became a glare, but the expression disappeared quickly from his eyes. “And besides, if I understand correctly, I will only become part of your _team_ once I’ve signed the contract over there. Which, to end this dull discussion, will not happen anytime soon except if you decide to explain to me in _detail_ , and under oath of truth, what it contains.”

“Oath of truth, huh?” Tony quipped. “Are you going to apply the magical equivalent of a truth serum? Or something?”

“Or something,” Loki agreed. “And I think I will start with you, Stark.”

“Shh! Stop.” It was Jane again. The petite woman stepped forward into the middle of the room and made a placating gesture. “Let’s calm down, all. Why don’t we go somewhere more comfortable? Like, team quarters? Loki can explain his All-Speak thing there and we don’t have to stand around looking like idiots.”

“Yeah. I’ve got a feeling this is going to take some time,” Steve said.

Tony noticed the impatience on Fury’s face. “Oh, please don’t worry, dearest Director. We’re going to let you in on the fun once we know a bit more about Loki’s _little problem_.”

He slipped out of the room fast enough to avoid the angry punch of the Norse god’s fist.


	2. In which Natasha speaks in tongues

 

“So how does that work?” Tony casually asked. “How do we see you _speaking_ English words when you’re actually _saying_ them in another language?”

They filed into the rec room that was set apart for the team, a couple of black couches, a table, several screens and a counter where snacks could be found. Steve went ahead and made coffee. Everybody sat down. Clint settled next to Natasha while Tony slouched opposite of them, putting his feet on the table. He indicated the seat next to him. “Come on, Loki. Sit.”

The god did. Leather and metal creaked as he leant back, just a little. Tony waited a moment longer, then waved his hand, “You heard my question. How does it work?”

Loki glanced at him as if that was the most dim-witted query he’d ever been asked to answer. “You are seeing me utter the words you expect to see because to _you_ , I am speaking that language,” he said. “Asgardian magic is nothing if not logical.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t really explain anything,” Tony complained, pausing momentarily to receive a mug of coffee from Steve.

“Does it not?” Loki declined the coffee that Steve held out to him. Steve, unblinking, handed it to Clint. “All-Speak exists to facilitate communication,” the god continued. “How do you imagine earlier Midgardian peoples would have reacted if they saw me utter impossibilities?”

“They would’ve thought you were an evil sorcerer,” Tony grunted. “Oops. I forgot. You _are_ an evil sorcerer. Well, all right, the evil is debatable now –“

“Please, Tony, this is getting us nowhere,” Natasha admonished. She fixated Loki’s eyes with her own and a cunning smile tugged at her lips. To everybody’s surprise she suddenly started speaking in tongues.

“Qué estoy diciendo? Tienes los ojos muy verdes, y muy luminosos, Loki.”

“Dijiste que te gustaban mis ojos,” Loki answered, a grin threatening to break out on his pale features. “Creíste que no te iba a entender?”

Natasha raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t detect any trace of an accent. She was impressed. “Ich hätte nicht gedacht, dass du mich so gut verstehst, nein,“ she replied, eager to hear what he would say next.

“Und doch verstehe ich jede Sprache, in der du mich prüfen möchtest, Natasha.”

“Till och med ett språk som väldig lite folk talar?“

He didn’t hesitate at all, “Ja. Till och med det.”

“Hey, would you please stop speaking Finnish and remember that we’re here, too?” Tony finally interrupted the exchange.

Loki looked at him, his eyes sparkling. “Do you feel left out?” He grinned, “Am I supposed to feel sympathetic? You have to tell me if I am. I never notice.”

Tony grimaced while Natasha reproached Loki. “Stop it, now. Tony has a right to know what you’re mocking him about. Say it in English.”

“Um, Tash.” Clint looked at her a little strangely. “He _was_ speaking English right now. Something about not feeling sympathetic?”

Natasha raised her head. “What are you talking about? It was still Swedish.”

Steve looked between her and Loki, “Actually, I’m one hundred percent sure it was Eng-“

“You are _both_ correct,” Loki said, with enough authority in his voice that all of them fell silent. “I neglected to restrict the direction. You were all hearing the language you could understand.”

“ _Restrict the direction_?” Tony asked in disbelief. “What, so you can actually _decide_ who can understand you and who can’t?” He wanted a drink. This whole business was giving him a headache. And he didn’t even have Jarvis.

“It is a wearisome effort,” Loki replied. “I can hardly be bothered.”

“Loki. Would you please remember to be nice?” Jane put in, with enough poignancy to make Loki flinch. Just a little bit. The ‘Or I’m telling Thor’ was evident on the edges of her voice.

Loki sat back and gave a noncommittal smile.

Tony was trying to distract himself from thinking about drinks; he was pretty sure that Fury, instructed by Pepper, had banned everything alcoholic from the helicarrier at large, and the Avengers weren’t scheduled to leave for at least a couple of days longer. So he focused instead on getting his mind wrapped around Loki’s very unusual concept of communicating foreign affairs.

“Okay, let me get this straight. All-Speak works on every _spoken_ language on earth, but not on a single _written_ one?” He shook his head. “Heck, that kinda sounds like a bad deal to me.”

Loki made an annoyed face. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Stark. All-Speak was devised when we first came into contact with other realms – with Midgard – and that was a time when its people were not yet relying on the written word. In fact, I believe most civilizations on Midgard had not even developed writing back then.”

Tony frowned. “But you kept an eye on them, right? You followed their progress. So that’s not really an excuse.  You should have adapted your language according to the new needs. Any form of technology is only as good as its latest upgrade.”

Loki shot him a skeptical glance. “One can’t compare All-Speak with one of your machines, Stark. It would be indefinitely more complicated to alter its capacities. It would also require many years of study, of that I am certain.” 

“Right. And probably, when you’re done, mankind would have already abandoned writing altogether and turned to electronic telepathy or something,” Steve remarked. He sounded a little wistful. He was probably thinking about the sudden and overwhelming changes in communications he’d had to deal with after waking from the ice. Satellites, computers, cell phones … they made the world seem so small, and yet devastatingly complex at the same time.

“Hey, Steve,” Clint asked with a tinge of glee, “that wasn’t some elaborate cry for help right there, was it? You’ve been putting your cell phone in the dishwasher again?”

“Shut it, Clint,” Natasha said when Steve’s face turned a light shade of red. “Loki, go on.”

“I have given you what information you need to know,” Loki said. “There is not much more to tell.”

“So, what you’ve been trying to say, Green Eyes,” Tony began, sitting on the edge of the table, coffee mug in one hand and pointing his index finger in the general direction of Loki’s mouth, “is that All-Speak basically _is_ magic, _works_ by magic, and can’t be upgraded _because_ it is magic.”

Loki’s disdain was very obvious now. “In a way.” He took to threading his long pale fingers through each other, then stapled them beneath his chin.

“So if all of this is some sort of magical hocus pocus anyway,” Tony’s index finger jutted even closer to Loki’s face, “then why don’t you use even _more_ magic to _make_ yourself able to read our writing?”

The god’s lips twisted into a strange, wolfish smile. “If it were that easy, Tony Stark, do you not think I would have already indulged in working myself through whatever dull collection of texts you have lying about? Your question suggests the assumption that it were possible to make all reading material accessible to me at once, which it is not. I would have to work my magic on every single piece of writing, one by one. It would be an endlessly tiring and unrewarding activity, particularly seeing as how I hardly expect any mortal text to be worthy of the effort –“

“Liar,” Natasha cut him short.

Loki stared at her. “What?”

“You were lying, right there. About how you don’t think that our literature was worth the effort.”

Loki’s dark eyebrows knitted together. “You are a formidable woman, Lady Natasha, but I don’t believe you capable of detecting when I’m lying.”

Natasha smiled, and Tony had to admit he had no idea if it was genuine. “Maybe not, but I _am_ capable of observing you. As I have, for as long as you’ve been staying on the helicarrier, and in Stark Tower before. And you _are_ interested in our books. You’ve been prowling along bookshelves for weeks. You’ve taken books in your hands, looked at them, but never once have I seen you sitting down with one. I’ve been wondering.”

Loki didn’t say anything, though he did cast his eyes down. Steve took the opportunity to pipe up. “You know, Loki, Thor told us a few things about you.”

Loki huffed. “Oh, I’m sure he did –”

“He told us you were a scholar,” Steve went on, deliberately cheerful so as to drown out Loki’s gloomy tones. “That you loved books. You used to have hundreds of them on Asgard.” He sent Loki his best smile. “And that’s _great_ , Loki. It shows that you have a love for knowledge, and we’d be stupid not to encourage that.”

“Besides, how exactly were you planning to get along in this world, and specifically as part of the Avengers, without being able to read?” Tony remarked. “Not that I have anything against illiterate people, but – _you_?”

“ _Illiterate_?” Loki grumbled. “Well, I’d like to see _you_ try to decipher Asgardian runes, Stark. I’d wager you wouldn’t get all that far without breaking out in tears.”

“Shh. Boys!” Jane waved her hands in front of their faces. “Would you please calm down? I’m getting a headache.”

That makes two of us, Tony thought. Natasha, however, seemed perfectly composed and even tempted to smile. “Whatever your reasons, Loki,” she said amicably, “you really could have told us sooner.” 

“To what end?” Loki was still kneading his hands. Tony suddenly noticed that his battle armor, green and silver and black and shiny, really looked out of place here.

“So we could find a solution together, of course,” Steve said. “You’re a teammate now. We _help_ each other.”

 _Help_? Loki didn’t say it but Tony could practically hear it in his head, with all the contempt that a millennia old cosmic being was capable of mustering. Which meant, cosmic amounts.

Oh, Loki, he thought. You’re trying so hard, most of the time – _we_ are trying so hard –, but you’re still not trusting us. Not completely.

It would probably only take another millennium or so for that little goal to be achieved. Oh well.

“And you just could have asked us,” Natasha added. If it weren’t Natasha Tony could have almost believed she sounded kind.

“Asked us what?” Clint put in, downing the rest of his coffee.

“To teach him to read.”

Loki abruptly straightened his back, the dark look leaving his face like the shadow of a bird’s wing. His eyes flitted between them for a moment, and the corners of his mouth all but quivered.

Tony almost, _almost_ expected him to say something along the lines of ‘There’s no need, I don’t require your assistance in learning to read,’ but the god stayed silent.

“Would you like that, Loki?” Jane finally asked.

Loki’s gaze came to rest on her. He visibly swallowed. “Yes. I would.”

“Right!” Tony exclaimed, relieved. “Then that’s settled. I’m going to get more coffee. Who wants some?”

Various voices answered, and the loudest of them didn’t refer to coffee.

“So that means he’ll soon be able to read what we’ve written for him!” Darcy shouted excitedly.

 


	3. In which matters are clarified

 

“I had an idea,” Tony announced the next morning – well, it was half past ten – when he met up with his colleagues for breakfast in the mess hall.

“Let me guess. It occurred to you how to install a warp drive into your suit,” Clint remarked dryly, loading his plate with slices of toast.

“Wha –? You’ve been watching Star Trek again, Legolas? You shouldn’t do that, you know how science-fiction messes up the brain.” Tony grinned and snatched one of Clint’s toasts. “No, no. I’ve been thinking about how we can improve Loki’s written language skills.” He grinned triumphantly. “He’s got to learn English for real!”

Clint, Natasha and Steve all stared at him with varying degrees of skepticism.

“What?” Tony inquired. “You don’t like my solution?”

“Don’t you think that’s a little – I don’t know, easy?” Clint said.

Tony shrugged, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Why? How is learning another language _from_ _scratch_ easy? If you’re not me, of course.”

“You think you’re funny, Tony, don’t you?” Natasha said coolly. “Well, you’re not.” She floated off, plate in hand.

“As if _she_ ’d know –“ Tony frowned, feigning offense.

“Hey, you can just ask Loki about your idea,” Clint said, nudging Tony with his elbow. “Here he comes.”

The God of Mischief had entered the mess hall; he was easy to discern since he was taller, leaner, and paler than most everyone else. He didn’t have his armor on for once, just the long, dark tunic he wore underneath plus black pants and boots.

“Morning, Loki,” Tony greeted him and stepped aside to make room for Loki at the breakfast buffet.

“Good morning, Stark.” Loki started loading his plate. He’d been with the Avengers for long enough to know how toaster, coffee machine and drink dispenser worked, and could operate them perfectly; as opposed to Thor, who still couldn’t be trusted not to end any offending machinery with Mjöllnir.

“Is there something you wanted?” Loki asked when Tony kept looking at him as the god made his way along the buffet.

“Yeah, there is actually. You know, I was thinking about your – language problem last night.”

Loki stopped spreading butter on his toast and turned to him. “You were?”

He sounded incredulous enough to warrant a reaction from Steve. “Loki, I was hoping that after all these months you had finally accepted we’re _friends_ ,” the supersoldier spoke up. “Of _course_ we’re thinking about how we can help you.”

“Yep. That’s what we do. And _I_ had an idea that might help you,” Tony went on. “I believe you need to learn speaking English for real.”

“How do you mean?” Loki asked.

“Well, I mean that you’ve never really _learned_ any language other than All-Speak, right?” Tony replied eagerly. “Because whatever other language you hear gets automatically translated into your own language in your head. Right?”

“Yes. That is right.”

“Aha!” Tony grinned and could hardly keep his calm, “So what if you were to learn _actual_ _English_? As a language besides All-Speak? Along with Latin letters? Spoken English and written English in combination. Don’t you think that would work?”

Loki hesitated. “I am not sure.”

“Why? If you _know_ the language that is spoken, there’s no need for All-Speak to translate it for you. Right?”

Loki frowned. “In theory, yes.”

Tony grinned. “See? Now you only need to upload the entirety of the English language in both its written and spoken form into that pretty little head of yours. And given that you’re a magical god with a magical godly brain, there shouldn’t be much trouble with that. Problem solved!”

Loki was regarding him with a mixture of wonder and regret in his eyes. “I wish it were,” he said, slowly. “But the All-Speak magic doesn’t work that way.”

“ _What_?” Tony asked, perplexed, the pieces of his plan threatening to crumble around him in the face of Loki’s vehemence.

“The magic that results in All-Speak does not work that way,” Loki clarified; he no longer sounded as patient. “But I thank you for your efforts, Stark.”

With that, the god turned back to the buffet and quickly finished loading his plate.

Steve, who was still hanging around the coffee machine, seemed to be no more satisfied with Loki’s answer than Tony was. “Loki, could you please explain?” he asked politely. “Did I understand it correctly that you _can’t_ learn to speak English?”

Loki exhaled. It was hard to tell if he was distressed or merely annoyed. “If I were,” he began, facing the wall rather than his colleagues, “to try and speak an English word – any one word – All-Speak would always jumble it up and you wouldn’t understand. Similarly, if I were to try and hear what one of you actually is saying, All-Speak would jumble it up and _I_ wouldn’t understand. It would be a futile endeavor.”    

He abruptly turned and walked off to find a table. Tony, Steve and Clint looked at each other, then followed after the god.

“Hey! Wait.” Tony slid on a chair opposite of Loki. The others took the remaining two chairs. Loki observed this with a very impressive scowl, but the Avengers had long since gotten used to him and weren’t fazed.

“Could you please give us an example, Loki?” Steve asked. “Of what happens when you try to speak English?”

Loki gazed at them icily. “You wish to make fun of me,” he grumbled.

“That’s not true!” Steve protested. “Far from it!” Tony agreed, even though he secretly thought that the day was best started off with some laughter. Clint just watched.

“It will not work,” Loki insisted. “I would appreciate it if you refrained from bothering me.”

“Pleeeeease, Loki.” Tony gave Loki his best puppy dog eyes.

“No.” With a loud clank, Loki dropped his butter knife on the table. “And if you don’t stop annoying me I will be forced to go against Fury’s orders and turn all of you into bugs.” He sneered. “Moreover, since the action I just mentioned is against the Rules, I will have to file an official statement as to why it was necessary to perform it, and I will make certain to point out all the details of your very presumptuous infringement on my patience and privacy.” 

“ _Bugs_?” Clint muttered, unconvinced. 

Tony was awed. If Loki threatened them not only with magic but also with _bureaucracy_ , it had to mean that what they had asked really was a no-go area for him. “Calm down,” Tony said. “No one wants to be a bug.”

“Yeah, guys, let’s just leave him alone here, all right?” the Captain put forward. Tony had to grudgingly comply. He could feel Loki’s frosty stare on the back of his neck as they left for another table.

 

Ö               Y               Ä

 

Natasha and Jane went to see Loki in his room later that day. He let them in right away, but barely looked up from the ancient, leather-bound book in his lap.

“Wow,” Jane said, edging closer to take a good look at the tome, “so that’s Asgardian runes?”

“It is.” Loki glanced at her sideways.

Jane’s eyes danced over the opened pages. “That’s absolutely cool!” she enthused.

Loki made a weird face. Natasha used the moment to wander into his line of vision and address him, “Loki, I heard that Stark and Clint have been threatened to be turned into bugs by you.”

Loki raised an eyebrow. “Indeed they have. The Captain was there as well.” He sounded just a little smug.

Jane stopped gazing at the book and instead frowned at the god, “What was that about?” 

Loki sniffed. “They were annoying me and encroaching upon my privacy.”

“Oh! Poor you,” Natasha teased, drawing out the words. “It didn’t have anything to do with you having to learn English, did it?”

Loki suddenly closed the book, which produced a dry thud. “Stark was very certain that he had come up with a good plan,” he said, tone rather monotonous. “But he hadn’t, and was unwilling to accept my assertion that I am naturally unable to learn the English language. Or any language.”

“What happens when you try?” Jane asked, not expecting Loki’s fierce reaction. The god snarled at her and she instinctively flinched back. “What did I say?” the petite scientist breathed.

“Exactly. What _did_ she say?” Natasha emphasized. As usual, witnessing a violent mood swing didn’t faze her in the least. Even when the mood swinger in question was a god from outer space.

The calmness she projected had the desired effect, as Loki seemed to instantly cool down again. “I … I do not wish to demonstrate an attempt,” he said, face carefully bland.

“At speaking English?” Jane asked. “Um. All right …”

“You’ve made me curious,” Natasha said, intently gazing at Loki. “You do know that Jane and I would never disclose this to anyone?”

Loki leaned back in his seat. “Now why would I give to you and Jane what I denied to the others?”

Natasha exchanged a glance with Jane. “Because we’re women,” they then said in unison, as if that were an entirely reasonable response.

Loki reacted with a pointed stare. “I don’t see how that fact substantiates what you’re asking.” 

“ _Loki_ –“ Jane began, but the god continued speaking, “However, your audacity in saying it impresses me. I will demonstrate what happens – if you indeed promise not to tell anyone.”

“Of course,” Natasha said, faint curiosity in her eyes.

Loki made a quick gesture with his hand in the air between them. Jane frowned, “Whoa, did we just take a magical oath or something?”

The god smiled playfully. “Wouldn’t you just love to know.” He finally put the heavy book on a small table at his side and looked up at the two women. “All right. One of you needs to say something very carefully and I will focus on your lip movements and then _try_ to repeat it without letting the All-Speak magic interfere.”

Jane indicated for Natasha to follow that prompt. The red-haired woman thought for a moment and then spoke, very slowly and clearly, “I am not sure these dramatics are entirely justified.”

Loki’s eyes tracked the movements of her lips so intently that his green irises were practically burning. When Natasha finished speaking he leaned back and audibly breathed through his nose before he opened his mouth and said … _something_.

Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t English. It probably wasn’t any language intended to be used by a humanoid being at all, if Loki’s odd grimaces were anything to go by. The sounds that tumbled out of his mouth were so garbled they could scarcely be called _words_ , as if Loki’s tongue was literally knotted; the attempt at speaking had left his face contorted and his breathing labored. He seemed to be in physical pain.

“Oh –” Jane muttered with a mixture of sympathy and amusement.

“See?” Loki said after a moment, voice roughened from his exercise. “I tried to replicate the movements of Lady Natasha’s mouth since I couldn’t actually _hear_ what she said – the All-Speak translated it –, but the magic insisted on fulfilling its purpose and making my speech understandable to you. The result was this jumble.”

And then he blushed.

“I hope this convinces you … that my so-called dramatics _are_ justified,” he added, chin slightly trembling as if he were tempted to look down at his feet.

The women could only stare at him. Neither of them could remember the god to ever have blushed before. The color in his normally pallid face was very endearing though, and maybe one of them – probably Jane – even would have hugged him if she hadn’t known of his aversion to such gestures.  

“Yeah,” Natasha said, “don’t worry. We won’t bug you about it again.”

Jane was contemplating what they’d just witnessed. “This means the problem is more complicated than we thought, though, doesn’t it?” she pointed out. “Loki can’t learn the English language, so how can he learn English writing?”

Loki – his blush slowly subsiding – smiled and tilted his head. “Ah, but the one thing is very different from the other,” he said; he’d apparently regained his self-command if not his confidence. “Your letters are just symbols. As are runes; they stand in for something else. If I can learn the letters independently, I will be able to bypass the All-Speak magic.”

Jane was struggling to grasp Loki’s somewhat mind-boggling explanations. “Did I get that right?” she asked. “You probably can’t learn _spoken_ English, but you _can_ learn its written form? Are you sure?”

“I am fairly sure, yes,” the god said. “All-Speak was never intended for writing _except_ in runes, so the two concepts should not conflict.”

Natasha was smirking. “You’re planning on _outsmarting_ All-Speak?”

Loki winked at her. “Of course. It’s magic. Any magic can be tricked.”

They probably should have seen that coming. He wasn’t called a trickster for nothing.

A couple of minutes later Natasha and Jane left Loki to his own devices and retreated down the corridor towards the rec room. “That was really strange,” Jane confessed. “Don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” her friend agreed. “I can’t believe he _blushed_.”

“It must have been really hard on him to show such a weakness,” Jane mused. “No wonder he didn’t want to do it in front of the guys and their egos.”

“In a way it’s understandable,” Natasha said. “All-Speak is a weird kind of magic, but it _is_ magic. And Loki is a master sorcerer. Or at least that’s what he wants to be, and has proven to be on most occasions so far. No such luck here. All-Speak is stronger than him. He can’t control it.”

“That must be _killing_ him,” Jane nodded. Slowly, it dawned on her that there was a funny side to their problems, too. The poor, proud god. The mental image of a reddening, stuttering Loki was almost too good to be true.

It was probably for the best that said God of Mischief couldn’t hear them laugh.

 

Ö               Y               Ä

 

No one was surprised when that evening, Fury called in a meeting to address the latest Loki issue in a more official manner. The Director’s one-eyed look was solemn. “Considering that Loki Odinson is intended to be a full member of the Avengers initiative and as such, needs to be able to gather information independently, read instructions, and write reports –“

“Yeah, that last thing? _Not_ really something to look forward to,” Tony told Loki, who was perched next to him. He said it in hushed tones, rolling his eyes for maximum emphasis.

Tony vaguely remembered that in the morning, he’d been peeved at Loki for some reason or other; but then he’d worked on several ideas that had been prompted by Clint’s offhand Star Trek comment all day, and things were going well, and he felt excited and like he was getting somewhere and his overall mood was so good that for the time being, to him, everything and everyone around was tinted in the golden glow of friendship. Including their resident Space Viking.  

“– I’ve decided to make his training on the subject of Latin letters a top priority, and _it would be nice if you could lend me just three minutes of your precious attention, Stark_!”

Tony winced. Fury’s one eye was practically glowing at him. “Oops. Yeah. I’m listening, Director.”

The reprimand didn’t keep him from leaning over to Loki once again, though. “And why do they need you to write reports anyway? Thor never had to. How is that fair?” he whispered.

Loki eyed him with a smile playing on his lips. “I assume because they understand perfectly well that my dear brother would be incapable of fulfilling such a demanding task,” he replied smugly. “He would grow frustrated very soon and once that happens, I could not guarantee for the continuous welfare of any surrounding furniture.”

By this point, Tony found it hard to keep a straight face. Snorts of laughter threatened to spill out. Natasha slapped him on the elbow. “ _Tony_! Be quiet!” she hissed. Tony noticed that Fury had stopped talking and was staring at him yet again.

“What? He was talking too!” the Iron Man protested, indicating Loki, who made an innocent face.

“Was he now?” Fury asked pointedly. “I didn’t hear him.”

“But –“ Tony frowned. Loki looked just a bit too self-satisfied now, green sparks glittering in his eyes. Had he …? The little bastard.

“To come back to the _actual_ purpose of this meeting,” Fury resumed, voice oozing annoyance and the promise that Tony hadn’t heard the end of this yet, “Loki will be tutored in written English by one of you for two hours each day. This arrangement will only be _temporarily_ suspended whenever the team is on extended missions. I _trust_ ,” and here he eyed all of them in turn, slowly and deliberately, “that you treat this task with all the necessary respect and carry it out to the best of your ability. You can work out a schedule that’s convenient for everybody. Including Doctor Banner, once he returns, and of course you, Doctor Foster.” The Director smiled like a shark. “Are there any questions or complaints?”

No one moved. Tony noticed Loki’s eyes flitting over everybody present. His eyebrows were slightly creased. What was the god thinking about?

Fury’s smile widened into a full-blown predator’s grin. “I thought so. Dismissed.”


	4. In which Loki learns letters

 

Four days later, the Avengers and their associates left the helicarrier and returned to Stark Tower, which over the course of the last year had become something like their home base. This also marked the day that Loki’s lessons were scheduled to begin. Jane had volunteered to be his first instructor, partly because she didn’t have anything better to do – Erik Selvig was currently attending a conference in Europe and Jane had to wait for whatever results he brought back before she could continue her research, and Thor wasn’t on earth and wouldn’t return for another month or so – but mostly because she was wary of ‘some people’, as she had called it, overstraining Loki.

“What are you getting at?” Tony had complained. “Loki’s supposed to be some kind of outer space genius! Hell, if what he did the last couple months is any indication, then that rumor’s definitely true! He _is_ smart. And you know what that means coming from me –“

“He _won’t_ be able to keep up with your expectations, Tony,” Jane had injected patiently, but the Iron Man ignored her.

“– and he’s a magician besides!” he insisted.

“He needs _time_ ,” Jane explained, struggling to keep her calm. “You’re going to get your chance, Tony. Now, where can I print something?”

When she went to the lounge room Loki was already there, sitting in an armchair by the large windows, eyes half-closed and face turned into the sunlight. He didn’t have his armor on; he wore tight black jeans and a dark blue shirt, complemented by some sort of designer ties on his feet.

“Oh! You’re getting domestic,” Jane blurted before it occurred to her that she had seen Loki wear casual clothes before; just not very often since she didn’t actually stay at Stark Tower all that much. She remembered Natasha telling her how Loki every once in a while turned up more human-looking than usual. There was no discernible pattern to these occasions – Natasha had voiced the guess that Loki’s sole reasoning was creating surprised looks on the faces of his housemates.   

It still was a weird sight.

“I’m not planning on leaving the house today, Lady Jane. So I thought I could forego the formal attire for once.”  Loki gave her one of his teasing smiles.

Jane thought the fact that he considered _battle armor_ as standard formal attire was saying something about Asgardian mentalities. “Right! All set for your first lesson?”

“I am.” He rose from the armchair elegantly and moved to sit at the table.

“Great!” Jane slid into the chair opposite of him and unfolded a large sheet of paper on the tabletop. “Have a look. This is our alphabet. It consists of twenty-six letters. Some of them look different depending on whether they’re upper case or lower case, but mostly you should be able to tell them apart pretty easily.”

Loki’s eyes took in the letters with some curiosity. “Several of these look similar to our runes,” he stated.

“Oh?” Jane’s interest was immediately piqued. “How so?”

“Well, for example, this one –“, a long white finger indicated the M, “– looks a bit like the Man-rune.”

Jane had to chuckle. “ _Man_ -rune?”

“Indeed.” His green gaze snapped up to meet hers. “What do you find so amusing?”

“Nothing. Sorry,” Jane quickly said. “You just sound so – baffled. But don’t worry, it’s adorable.” As soon as the words were out, she frowned. Maybe that hadn’t been the wisest thing to say.

Luckily for her, Loki chose to ignore her answer and focused on the alphabet instead. “So, each one of these represents a specific sound?” he inquired.

“Yep. I’m going to read them to you and you can try to memorize the sounds, all right?”

“All right.”

Jane proceeded to enunciate the letters one by one. She pointed out those letters whose phonological uses differentiated from how they were pronounced individually; Loki listened attentively and with the patience of a saint, which wasn’t typical for the God of Mischief. At all.

Jane could only deduce that appealing to Loki’s scholarly inclinations was the way to go should they ever need to keep him busy for some reason or other. Being a devoted scientist herself she could very much relate to the tendency to get lost in intellectual pursuits – and Loki was good. It took him no more than half an hour to memorize all the sounds the letters on the table represented, and he was obviously pleased by his success.

“Yes. Very well done!” Jane smiled. “Now, do you know why this is called an alphabet?”

The delight on Loki’s face was replaced by a knitted brow. “A – what?”

“An alphabet,” Jane repeated hesitantly. “Al-pha-bet.”

His gaze was fixed on her, but he shook his head. “I’m sorry. What I’m hearing is something to the effect of ‘set of letters’. I presume that is not what you mean?”

“Um – no.” Jane heaved a sigh. “Of course. I forgot about All-Speak again. ‘Alphabet’ is a word from the Greek, so obviously it gets translated.”

Loki folded his hands on the tabletop. “Greek?”

“Yeah. I wanted to explain that the name comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta, which correspond to the first two letters of the Latin one –“ She trailed off when the expression on Loki’s face turned to one of complete and utter mystification.

“It’s not important!” Jane hastily said, afraid he would get frustrated and run off.  Loki’s frame of mind was ever so fragile. “We’re making good progress already, aren’t we? Let’s go back to –“

He looked at her, eyes dark. “There’s more than _one_ type of letters?” he asked accusingly.

Jane blinked. Oh. _Oh_ , so that’s why he was upset. “Yeah. There are dozens of alphabets. Hundreds, maybe, I’m not sure. There’s Cyrillic, and Chinese, and – and Indian, and others. There’s one for blind people –“

“You never mentioned any of that before.” His voice dripped ice.

Jane straightened and wrung her hands. “No, Loki, it really doesn’t matter. There’s no need for you to learn those. The Latin alphabet will suffice. It will be enough.”

The god seemed undecided for a moment. Then finally, his expression softened again. “You’re not lying,” he stated.

“Of course not. Why would I do that, in front of _you_?” Jane grinned. “So. Let’s see what happens when I ask you to write down these letters from memory.”

She went to get pencil and paper from a drawer. She couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for Loki. He mostly hid it but there was still so much doubt in him, a suspicion that they would try to fool him, to poke fun at him. He needed to open up, to become less rigid, and maybe this letter-learning business wasn’t the worst way to achieve that.

 

Ö               Y               Ä

 

Jane’s next session with Loki was two days later; it was a rainy afternoon and a quietness had settled over Stark Tower that was profound but not unpleasant.  She found the God of Mischief already sitting at the table in the lounge, sheet of letters spread out in front of him.

“Hey,” she greeted. “So how was your lesson with Steve yesterday?”

Loki looked up and frowned, apparently searching for the appropriate characterization. “It was – indulgent,” he said at last.

Jane grinned. “Okay – so let’s see if you remember the names of the letters.”

Loki nodded and closed his eyes so as to better be able to focus. “A, b, c –“ He went on to enunciate them all, crisply and without hesitation.

“All right,” Jane said when he was finished, “your next step is to learn to identify the sounds that correspond to the letters. For example, my name.”

“Your name?” He gazed at her. “Jane. Jay – yn. _Jane_ –“

“Actually, it consists of four letters,” Jane gently put in, but Loki seemed surprisingly keyed up.

“Jane. Jay. Ay. An,” he said excitedly, pointing his index finger at the J on the paper, then at the A, and the N. “It’s these letters!” He turned to her, one eyebrow raised drolly, “Isn’t it?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Jane replied hastily, with a broad smile; his glee was infectious.  “Just – not to confuse you, but – there’s one more letter. You don’t really hear it, I think it’s got something to do with phonology – or was it orthography?” She frowned; linguistics had never really been her thing. She picked up a pencil and wrote her name in large capitals on the notepad that lay at her elbow. Loki’s eyes intently followed the movements of her hand.  “Like this. See?” Jane said.

“I do,” Loki answered. “That is fascinating.”

“Glad that you think so,” Jane muttered. She knew they were lucky that Loki had a natural curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. If it’d been otherwise, they’d have had a damn hard time to even get him to listen.

“May I?” the god asked. Jane handed him the pencil – his long fingers took it with the utmost care – and he proceeded to copy what she had written in neat, if slightly angular letters.

“Very good,” Jane praised, back in teacher mode. But Loki wasn’t done yet. He wrote other characters below her name, characters that looked dissimilar and still somewhat related to Latin script, here and there; like they originated on different branches of the same tree.

“You’ve written my name in runes!” Jane realized.

“I assumed you’d perhaps be interested to know what it looks like,” Loki said, meekly. Once again Jane thought the god was adorable in his enthusiasm. Who would have thought?

“I love it!” she assured him. “I’ll try to memorize them.” She stared at what he’d written, scrunching up her forehead as if that helped to store them in her head.

“I – I didn’t mean to break up our lesson,” Loki said after a moment. “Shall we go on?”

“Yeah,” Jane said distractedly. “No, wait. Actually I think we’ve done enough for today. I’d like to hear about your runes.”

Confusion clouded Loki’s eyes, but only for a second. “Why?”

“Because I don’t know anything about them?” Jane mused. “It’s also unfair that you have to learn _our_ letters while we disregard yours. Don’t you think?”

Loki seemed to contemplate that. Then he nodded weightily, just as Jane had expected. Of course. Appealing to the god’s pride always worked.

“Runes are not ‘letters’ as you understand the term,” Loki began. “Or at least, they didn’t use to be. The word ‘rune’ meant ‘secret’ in our language of old. When we still had contact with the humans in the north of your world, they used to consider runes symbols of magic. They would carve them into stone or wood, believing them to provide a link to the supernatural. In Asgard, we began using them as our common scripture centuries before my birth. They can be used similar to your letters – one rune for one sound – but they can also be applied to encompass entire words.”

“So what does _your_ name look like?” Jane asked.

The god vaguely smiled, then picked up the pencil once more and drew four distinct characters on the paper. “Here. It consists of the runes ‘water’, ‘heritage’, ‘ulcer’ and ‘ice’.”

“That’s a funny combination,” Jane said, gazing at the letters-that-were-no-letters.

“Why?” Loki wriggled an eyebrow questioningly.

Jane hesitated, regretting that she hadn’t kept her mouth shut. Loki’s real lineage had been a public matter among the Avengers and their associates for a while now, but it wasn’t usually talked about. Loki’s outlook on life, and especially life here on earth, had changed a lot – no doubt about that – but she knew that his true ancestry was still a sore spot for him, and she didn’t want to risk the mood of their ‘lesson’ turning sour.

And besides, the _meaning_ of a name and the manner in which it was _written_ were two entirely different things, and she had to stop her scientist’s mind from overanalyzing.

“Oh – it’s funny just because – can’t you actually _use_ runes for magic?” she hastily stuttered when Loki’s inquiring gaze didn’t relent.

Loki nodded, apparently satisfied with her answer. “Of course. Rune magic is considered one of the traditional branches of Asgardian sorcery, though personally I have always found it slightly unreliable. It depends on too many variables to properly work.”

It sounded off-hand. Jane grinned. “So, assuming someone around here took the runes of your name and used them in some satanic ritual –“

“Nothing at all would happen,” Loki said, “as I have yet to find any human with a propensity for real magic. It seems the people of Midgard have been successful in completely cutting themselves off from the world tree’s golden energies. Perhaps the gravest of your many weaknesses.” 

For a moment, a trace of his old haughtiness bled through his words. Jane bristled; if there was one thing she couldn’t stand it was arrogance. “Loki!” she chided. “Be nice, or I’m going to tell –“

Who? Thor wasn’t there.

“– Natasha!”

Loki looked duly impressed. “Hm,” he muttered, shrugging. “Would you like to see the runes for ‘Thor’?” he then asked.

Jane was surprised at the unexpected offer, but quickly got over it. “Sure. Show me.”

This time it was only three characters that he drew. “There is a single rune for the th-sound,” Loki explained. “It’s called giant.” His brow knitted slightly, and he rephrased, “It’s called _thurs_. Which is an archaic word for giant.”

“Was that it?” Jane asked, curious. “You wanted to say the word in _your_ language but it came out in mine?”

“Indeed,” Loki muttered. He brushed a stray lock of black hair behind his ear and sighed. “Sometimes it is difficult to – keep everything straight, now that I’m concentrating on it. My head says one thing, my tongue another, and my ears hear yet another.”

Jane was sympathetic. He seemed almost tired. On a whim she extended her hand and patted him on the arm. “Don’t worry. You’ll make it, in time. We all have faith in you.”

“Yeah, that we do,” a new voice said. “We’re all very faithful here.”

Jane winced while Loki merely sighed. Tony Stark strolled in through the side door, followed by a meek Steve. “I _told_ Tony you were having a lesson,” he said, “but Tony just –“ 

“And what is all this?” Tony cut him short, booming in a way he had clearly learned from Thor. “I thought you were learning _our_ letters?” He pointed at the Asgardian runes strewn across the notepad.

“He is,” Jane said; she notice that Loki’s face had visibly darkened. “He was just showing me how our names are written in runes.”

“Oooh,” Tony drawled. “Hey, I want that too! Can you write _my_ name in runes? The mighty Stark?” He practically danced towards Loki and almost sat in his lap.

Loki leaned away. “You are being insufferable, Stark,” he said grumpily.

“Tony! Leave him alone,” Steve admonished. “It’s not his fault you’re bored.”

“I never said it was!” Tony retorted. “But if Jane can get her name written in runes, then why can’t I?”

“Tony –“ Jane began, but Loki suddenly sighed with an air of resignation. “Fine,” he said. “Look, Stark.”

He started writing in Latin letters, slowly but confidently. “S – T – A – R – K. Is this correct?”

“Yeah,” Tony said, looking over his shoulder, “but why –“

“I need this in order to transcribe it,” Loki explained. Jane had no idea whether his patience was feigned or genuine. “Very well. Now, the runes –“

He noted them down below the Latin letters. “The runes. The first one is called ‘sun’, then ‘Tyr’ – who was an Asgardian of great fame, a legend even before _my_ time –, then ‘god’, ‘ride’, and ‘ulcer’.”

“Ew,” Tony muttered with a grimace. “Um. Okay –“

“It wasn’t me who _named_ the runes,” Loki snarled.

“Whoa, Green Eyes.” Tony took a step backwards. “Okay. All right. Just forget I said that. And, um, thanks for the runes.”

Loki glowered. “You are welcome,” he stiffly replied.

“And, hey,” Tony added in a tone that was probably supposed to be magnanimous, “you don’t mind if I record these runes for scientific study, right?”

Loki hesitated, which Tony took as an assent. “Jarvis, set up a new file. Name it ‘Asgardian secrets’,” he commanded the air.

“ _Certainly, sir,_ ” the AI answered instantly.

“I want a picture of this compilation, Jarvis,” Tony went on, motioning towards the notepad. “Adjust the resolution by –“

Loki made a sudden noise of contempt, reached out with his long hands and smoothly waved them around the notepad, which promptly vanished.

Tony stared, open-mouthed. “Where – why did you do that?”

Loki huffed. “I’m confident you remember that I don’t appreciate it when _Asgardian secrets_ are given away for  
free,” he said, the raise of his eyebrows implying certain occasions in the recent past when such a thing had happened, and the dire consequences of it.

Tony hummed. “Fair enough,” he said with a shrug. Of course the matter was only postponed, and Loki undoubtedly knew it.

“Besides, you are disrupting my lesson,” the god added.

“He’s right,” Jane chimed in. “Tony, how about you –“

“Wait, wait, I have something to contribute!” Tony declared, looking to where the notepad had disappeared.

Loki tilted his head. “And what is that?”

Tony grinned. “Guys, didn’t you notice anything?”

“No, what?” Steve said.

Tony inhaled and made a spacious gesture, indicating Loki and the table and the room at large. “He wrote ‘Stark’ the same way we do, so I’m assuming he’s _hearing_ it the same way we do. Even _though_ ,” and here he opened his eyes wide for extra emphasis, “it’s also a normal word.”

Loki looked confused. “A word?”

“Yep. An adjective, to be exact. Means something like sheer, plain, or austere.”

“Right,” Jane muttered, quickly catching up. “Your last name’s also a word. As is mine. Foster, as in foster family, or nurture, or promote –“

Loki’s gaze alternated between the two of them. Then he said something vaguely mystifying, “Lady Jane, your name, Foster, means ‘foster’?”

“ _Huh?_ ” That was Steve. He looked completely baffled.

Tony, by contrast, seemed highly entertained. “ _Exactly_ ,” he said, grinning at Loki. “If I interpret this correctly and you in fact said that second ‘foster’ in your own language, only we heard it in ours.”

There was a contemplative silence for a moment until it was broken by Steve’s hesitant voice, “I’m sorry guys, but I think you’ve lost me.”

“Ah, don’t worry,” Tony calmed him, still grinning, “one day you’ll get used to the feeling.”

“Tony!” Jane warned. “This is serious. Are you aware that we almost certainly found a loophole in the All-Speak?”

“A loophole?” Loki asked.

“Yep.” Tony leaned against the table and his tone became conspiratorial. “It doesn’t work on proper names.”

Loki’s face lit up ever so slightly. “So I can learn reading your letters by studying your proper names?”

Jane wanted to believe it, but her decade-long experience with the method of trial and error was telling her it couldn’t be so easy. Surely they were overlooking _something_.

Then it came to her. “No. Can’t be. The _runes_ have proper names and they still get translated.”

That brought both Tony and Loki up short for a moment. Tony quickly recovered though. “That’s probably because there’s a duality to them,” he said. “They’re both a symbol for what they represent, and the thing itself. To use the terms of de Saussure, they’re both signifié and signifiant –“

“ _Who?_ ” Jane inquired, dumbfounded, whereas Steve seemed on the verge of desperation. Maybe it was for the best that at that moment, the door opened again and Natasha strode in, accessing the situation with one practiced glance. “Someone want to come to the gym and spar with me?” she asked, dryly.

“Me,” Steve immediately said, pushing past the red-haired woman and through the door.

“Yes,” said Loki, too, to everyone’s surprise, and sailed out of the room in the wake of the Captain.

“Hey, don’t think I forgot about those runes!” Tony shouted after the god. “That file’s waiting!”

 

Ö               Y               Ä

 

A couple of days later it turned out that exploiting the loophole definitely wouldn’t do in the long run. But Loki wouldn’t have been Loki if, even before the repercussions of that hit home, he hadn’t found a way to combine the tedious task of committing his new Latin letters to memory with having some fun. At the expense of his housemates, of course.

Somehow he managed to use the _letters_ to cause mischief.


End file.
